Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic by Kurt Johnson, Ellie Johnson

2 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Thank you to netgalley and sky horse publishing for the eARC of The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson!

Written by two authors, a father and daughter. The daughter, Ellie, paddled the Thelon River like our MCs and the novel is loosely based on her own canoe trip and her experiences coming of age as a queer woman.

The Barrens is an adventure/survival novel that reminded me of Wild and 127 hours. I haven’t read any books in this sub-genre so it was out of my comfort zone, but so worth it ❤️ It was also character driven which I don’t always enjoy, it’s a 50/50 chance I’ll love it or hate it. The characters were so well written and the story of finding yourself while dealing with a traumatic experience really captured me!

I was immediately pulled in and finished in just 3 days. We get to know more about Lee’s past along her journey through The Barrens. Lee is such a strong MC and there’s major character development which I always love to see! It’s a dark and emotional story so take care and look at the TWs before picking this one up! 

My only “complaint” would be that we didn’t get to know Holly as much as I hoped. We only know about her from Lee’s memories and the relationship Lee had with her. I would’ve enjoyed a little more background about Holly from her own POV.

Overall a consuming, emotional adventure story that is set to be my fave of the month!
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lifewithjoce's review

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adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

2.0

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